Personality, Attitudes, and Work Behaviors

Transcription

1 CHAP TER 2 Personality, Attitudes, and Work Behaviors FIGURE 2.1 Successful organizations depend on getting the right mix of individuals in the right positions at the right times Jupiterimages Corporation W H A T S I N I T F O R M E? Reading this chapter will help you do the following: Understand the roles of personality and values in determining work behaviors. Explain the process of perception and how it affects work behaviors. Identify the major work attitudes that affect work behaviors. Define the concept of person-organization fit and how it affects work behaviors. List the key set of behaviors that matter for organizational performance. Be able to develop your positive attitude skills. FIGURE 2.2 The P-O-L-C Framework

2 34 THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT Individuals bring a number of differences to work. They have a variety of personalities, values, and attitudes. When they enter into organizations, their stable or transient characteristics affect how they behave and perform. Moreover, companies hire people with the expectation that they have certain knowledge, skills, abilities, personalities, and values. Recall that you are learning about the principles of management through the planning-organizing-leadingcontrolling (P-O-L-C) framework. Employees personalities, attitudes, and work behaviors affect how managers approach each P-O-L-C dimension. Here are just a few examples: < When conducting environmental scanning during the planning process, a manager s perceptions color the information that is absorbed and processed. < Employee preferences for job design and enrichment (aspects of organizing) may be a function of individuals personalities and values. < Leading effectively requires an understanding of employees personalities, values, and attitudes. < Absenteeism can challenge a manager s ability to control costs and performance (both at the group and individual levels). Therefore, it is important for managers to understand the individual characteristics that matter for employee and manager behaviors. 1. PERSONALITY AND VALUES L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S Identify the major personality traits that are relevant to organizational behavior. Explain the potential pitfalls of personality testing. Describe the relationship between personality and work behaviors. Understand what values are. Describe the link between values and work behaviors. 1.1 Personality personality The relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns a person has. Personality encompasses a person s relatively stable feelings, thoughts, and behavioral patterns. Each of us has a unique personality that differentiates us from other people, and understanding someone s personality gives us clues about how that person is likely to act and feel in a variety of situations. To manage effectively, it is helpful to understand the personalities of different employees. Having this knowledge is also useful for placing people into jobs and organizations.

3 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS FIGURE 2.3 The New Yorker Collection 2007 Mick Stevens from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved. If personality is stable, does this mean that it does not change? You probably remember how you have changed and evolved as a result of your own life experiences, parenting style and attention you have received in early childhood, successes and failures you experienced over the course of your life, and other life events. In fact, personality does change over long periods of time. For example, we tend to become more socially dominant, more conscientious (organized and dependable), and more emotionally stable between the ages of 20 and 40, whereas openness to new experiences tends to decline as we age.[1] In other words, even though we treat personality as relatively stable, change occurs. Moreover, even in childhood, our personality matters, and it has lasting consequences for us. For example, studies show that part of our career success and job satisfaction later in life can be explained by our childhood personality.[2] Is our behavior in organizations dependent on our personality? To some extent, yes, and to some extent, no. While we will discuss the effects of personality for employee behavior, you must remember that the relationships we describe are modest correlations. For example, having a sociable and outgoing personality may encourage people to seek friends and prefer social situations. This does not mean that their personality will immediately affect their work behavior. At work, we have a job to do and a role to perform. Therefore, our behavior may be more strongly affected by what is expected of us, as opposed to how we want to behave. Especially in jobs that involve a lot of autonomy, or freedom, personality tends to exert a strong influence on work behavior,[3] something to consider when engaging in Organizing activities such as job design or enrichment. Big Five Personality Traits How many personality traits are there? How do we even know? In every language, there are many words describing a person s personality. In fact, in the English language, more than 15,000 words describing personality have been identified. When researchers analyzed the traits describing personality characteristics, they realized that many different words were actually pointing to a single dimension of 35

4 36 THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT personality. When these words were grouped, five dimensions seemed to emerge, and these explain much of the variation in our personalities.[4] These five are not necessarily the only traits out there. There are other, specific traits that represent other dimensions not captured by the Big Five. Still, understanding them gives us a good start for describing personality. FIGURE 2.4 The Big Five Personality Traits Source: Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative description of personality : The big-five factor structure. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 59, openness The degree to which a person is curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas. conscientiousness The degree to which a person is organized, systematic, punctual, achievement-oriented, and dependable. As you can see, the Big Five dimensions are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and Neuroticism if you put the initials together, you get the acronym OCEAN. Everyone has some degree of each of these traits; it is the unique configuration of how high a person rates on some traits and how low on others that produces the individual quality we call personality. Openness is the degree to which a person is curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas. People high in openness seem to thrive in situations that require flexibility and learning new things. They are highly motivated to learn new skills, and they do well in training settings.[5] They also have an advantage when they enter into a new organization. Their open-mindedness leads them to seek a lot of information and feedback about how they are doing and to build relationships, which leads to quicker adjustment to the new job.[6] When given support, they tend to be creative.[7] Open people are highly adaptable to change, and teams that experience unforeseen changes in their tasks do well if they are populated with people high in openness.[8] Compared with people low in openness, they are also more likely to start their own business.[9] The potential downside is that they may also be prone to becoming more easily bored or impatient with routine. Conscientiousness refers to the degree to which a person is organized, systematic, punctual, achievement-oriented, and dependable. Conscientiousness is the one personality trait that uniformly predicts how high a person s performance will be across a variety of occupations and jobs.[10] In fact, conscientiousness is the trait most desired by recruiters, and highly conscientious applicants tend to succeed in interviews.[11] Once they are hired, conscientious people not only tend to perform well, but they also have higher levels of motivation to perform, lower levels of turnover, lower levels of absenteeism, and higher levels of safety performance at work.[12] One s conscientiousness is related to career success and career satisfaction over time.[13] Finally, it seems that conscientiousness is a valuable trait for entrepreneurs. Highly conscientious people are more likely to start their own business compared with those who are not conscientious, and their firms have longer survival rates.[14] A potential downside is that highly conscientious individuals can be detail-oriented rather than seeing the big picture.

5 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS Extraversion is the degree to which a person is outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys socializing. One of the established findings is that they tend to be effective in jobs involving sales.[15] Moreover, they tend to be effective as managers and they demonstrate inspirational leadership behaviors.[16] extraverts do well in social situations, and, as a result, they tend to be effective in job interviews. Part of this success comes from preparation, as they are likely to use their social network to prepare for the interview.[17] extraverts have an easier time than introverts do when adjusting to a new job. They actively seek information and feedback and build effective relationships, which helps them adjust.[18] Interestingly, extraverts are also found to be happier at work, which may be because of the relationships they build with the people around them and their easier adjustment to a new job.[19] However, they do not necessarily perform well in all jobs; jobs depriving them of social interaction may be a poor fit. Moreover, they are not necessarily model employees. For example, they tend to have higher levels of absenteeism at work, potentially because they may miss work to hang out with or attend to the needs of their friends.[20] Agreeableness is the degree to which a person is affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm. In other words, people who are high in agreeableness are likeable people who get along with others. Not surprisingly, agreeable people help others at work consistently; this helping behavior does not depend on their good mood.[21] They are also less likely to retaliate when other people treat them unfairly.[22] This may reflect their ability to show empathy and to give people the benefit of the doubt. Agreeable people may be a valuable addition to their teams and may be effective leaders because they create a fair environment when they are in leadership positions.[23] At the other end of the spectrum, people low in agreeableness are less likely to show these positive behaviors. Moreover, people who are disagreeable are shown to quit their jobs unexpectedly, perhaps in response to a conflict with a boss or a peer.[24] If agreeable people are so nice, does this mean that we should only look for agreeable people when hiring? You might expect some jobs to require a low level of agreeableness. Think about it: When hiring a lawyer, would you prefer a kind and gentle person or someone who can stand up to an opponent? People high in agreeableness are also less likely to engage in constructive and change-oriented communication.[25] Disagreeing with the status quo may create conflict, and agreeable people may avoid creating such conflict, missing an opportunity for constructive change. Neuroticism refers to the degree to which a person is anxious, irritable, temperamental, and moody. It is perhaps the only Big Five dimension where scoring high is undesirable. Neurotic people have a tendency to have emotional adjustment problems and habitually experience stress and depression. People very high in Neuroticism experience a number of problems at work. For example, they have trouble forming and maintaining relationships and are less likely to be someone people go to for advice and friendship.[26] They tend to be habitually unhappy in their jobs and report high intentions to leave, but they do not necessarily actually leave their jobs.[27] Being high in Neuroticism seems to be harmful to one s career, as these employees have lower levels of career success (measured with income and occupational status achieved in one s career). Finally, if they achieve managerial jobs, they tend to create an unfair climate at work.[28] In contrast, people who are low on Neuroticism those who have a positive affective disposition tend to experience positive moods more often than negative moods. They tend to be more satisfied with their jobs and more committed to their companies.[29] This is not surprising, as people who habitually see the glass as half full will notice the good things in their work environment while those with the opposite character will find more things to complain about. Whether these people are more successful in finding jobs and companies that will make them happy, build better relationships at work that increase their satisfaction and commitment, or simply see their environment as more positive, it seems that low Neuroticism is a strong advantage in the workplace. 37 FIGURE 2.5 Studies show that there is a relationship between being extraverted and effectiveness as a salesperson Jupiterimages Corporation extraversion The degree to which a person is outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys being in social situations. agreeableness The degree to which a person is nice, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm. neuroticism The degree to which a person is anxious, irritable, aggressive, temperamental, and moody. Evaluate Yourself on the Big Five Personality Factors Go to to see how you score on these factors. Other Personality Dimensions In addition to the Big Five, researchers have proposed various other dimensions, or traits, of personality. These include self-monitoring, proactive personality, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Self-monitoring refers to the extent to which a person is capable of monitoring his or her actions and appearance in social situations. People who are social monitors are social chameleons who understand what the situation demands and act accordingly, while low social monitors tend to act the way they feel.[30] High social monitors are sensitive to the types of behaviors the social environment expects from them. Their ability to modify their behavior according to the demands of the situation they are in and to manage their impressions effectively are great advantages for them.[31] They are rated as higher self-monitoring The extent to which a person is capable of monitoring one s actions and appearance in social situations.

6 38 proactive personality A person s inclination to fix what is wrong, change things, and use initiative to solve problems. self-esteem The degree to which a person has overall positive feelings about oneself. THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT performers and emerge as leaders.[32] They are effective in influencing other people and are able to get things done by managing their impressions. As managers, however, they tend to have lower accuracy in evaluating the performance of their employees. It seems that while trying to manage their impressions, they may avoid giving accurate feedback to their subordinates to avoid confrontations, which could hinder a manager s ability to carry out the Controlling function.[33] Proactive personality refers to a person s inclination to fix what is wrong, change things, and use initiative to solve problems. Instead of waiting to be told what to do, proactive people take action to initiate meaningful change and remove the obstacles they face along the way. Proactive individuals tend to be more successful in their job searches.[34] They also are more successful over the course of their careers because they use initiative and acquire greater understanding of how the politics within the company work.[35] Proactive people are valuable assets to their companies because they may have higher levels of performance.[36] They adjust to their new jobs quickly because they understand the political environment better and make friends more quickly.[37] Proactive people are eager to learn and engage in many developmental activities to improve their skills.[38] For all their potential, under some circumstances proactive personality may be a liability for a person or an organization. Imagine a person who is proactive but is perceived as too pushy, trying to change things other people are not willing to let go of, or using their initiative to make decisions that do not serve a company s best interests. Research shows that a proactive person s success depends on his or her understanding of the company s core values, ability, and skills to perform the job and ability to assess situational demands correctly.[39] Self-esteem is the degree to which a person has overall positive feelings about himself or herself. People with high self-esteem view themselves in a positive light, are confident, and respect themselves. In contrast, people with low self-esteem experience high levels of self-doubt and question their selfworth. High self-esteem is related to higher levels of satisfaction with one s job and higher levels of performance on the job.[40] People with low self-esteem are attracted to situations where they will be relatively invisible, such as large companies.[41] Managing employees with low self-esteem may be challenging at times because negative feedback given with the intention of improving performance may be viewed as a negative judgment on their worth as an employee. Therefore, effectively managing employees with relatively low self-esteem requires tact and providing lots of positive feedback when discussing performance incidents. Self-Esteem Around the Globe Which nations have the highest average self-esteem? Researchers asked this question by surveying almost 17,000 individuals across 53 nations, in 28 languages. On the basis of this survey, these are the top 10 nations in terms of self-reported self-esteem: Serbia Chile Israel Peru Estonia United States of America Turkey Mexico Croatia Austria The following are the 10 nations with the lowest self-reported self-esteem: South Korea Switzerland Morocco Slovakia Fiji Taiwan Czech Republic Bangladesh Hong Kong Japan

7 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS 39 Source: Adapted from information in Denissen, J. J. A., Penke, L., & Schmitt, D. P. (2008, July). Self-esteem reactions to social interactions: Evidence for sociometer mechanisms across days, people, and nations. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 95, ; Hitti, M. (2005). Who s No. 1 in selfesteem? Serbia is tops, Japan ranks lowest, U.S. is no. 6 in global survey. WebMD. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from skin-beauty/news/ /whos-number-1-in-self-esteem; Schmitt, D. P., & Allik, J. (2005). The simultaneous administration of the Rosenberg selfesteem scale in 53 nationals: Culture-specific features of global self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, Self-efficacy is a belief that one can perform a specific task successfully. Research shows that the belief that we can do something is a good predictor of whether we can actually do it. Self-efficacy is different from other personality traits in that it is job specific. You may have high self-efficacy in being successful academically, but low self-efficacy in relation to your ability to fix your car. At the same time, people have a certain level of generalized self-efficacy, and they have the belief that whatever task or hobby they tackle, they are likely to be successful in it. Research shows that self-efficacy at work is related to job performance.[42] This is probably because people with high self-efficacy actually set higher goals for themselves and are more committed to their goals, whereas people with low self-efficacy tend to procrastinate.[43] Academic self-efficacy is a good predictor of your grade point average, as well as whether you persist in your studies or drop out of college.[44] Is there a way of increasing employee s self-efficacy? In addition to hiring people who are capable of performing the required job tasks, training people to increase their self-efficacy may be effective. Some people may also respond well to verbal encouragement. By showing that you believe they can be successful and effectively playing the role of cheerleader, a manager may be able to increase self-efficacy beliefs. Empowering people giving them opportunities to test their skills so that they can see what they are capable of is also a good way of increasing self-efficacy.[45] self-efficacy A belief that one can perform a specific task successfully. 1.2 Personality Testing in Employee Selection Personality is a potentially important predictor of work behavior. In job interviews, companies try to assess a candidate s personality and the potential for a good match, but interviews are only as good as the people conducting them. In fact, interviewers are not particularly good at detecting the best trait that predicts performance: conscientiousness.[46] One method some companies use to improve this match and detect the people who are potentially good job candidates is personality testing. Several companies conduct preemployment personality tests. Companies using them believe that these tests improve the effectiveness of their selection and reduce turnover. For example, Overnight Transportation in Atlanta found that using such tests reduced their on-the-job delinquency by 50% 100%.[47] Yet, are these methods good ways of employee selection? Experts have not yet reached an agreement on this subject and the topic is highly controversial. Some ex- FIGURE 2.6 perts cite data indicating that personality tests predict performance and other import- Companies such as Kronos and Hogan ant criteria such as job satisfaction. However, we must understand that how a personality test is used influences its validity. Imagine filling out a personality test in class. You Assessments conduct preemployment will probably fill it out as honestly as you can. Then, if your instructor correlates your personality tests. Kronos Incorporated personality scores with your class performance, we could say that the correlation is Headquarters is located in Chelmsford, meaningful. But now imagine that your instructor tells you, before giving you the test, Massachusetts. that based on your test scores, you will secure a coveted graduate assistant position, which comes with a tuition waiver and a stipend. In that case, would you still fill out the test honestly or would you try to make your personality look as good as possible? Source:

8 40 faking Answering questions in a way they think the company is looking for. THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT In employee selection, where the employees with the best personalities will be the ones receiving a job offer, a complicating factor is that people filling out the survey do not have a strong incentive to be honest. In fact, they have a greater incentive to guess what the job requires and answer the questions in a way they think the company is looking for. As a result, the rankings of the candidates who take the test may be affected by their ability to fake. Some experts believe that this is a serious problem.[48] Others point out that even with faking the tests remain valid the scores are related to job performance.[49] It is even possible that the ability to fake is related to a personality trait that increases success at work, such as social monitoring. Scores on personality self-assessments are distorted for other reasons beyond the fact that some candidates can fake better than others. Do we even know our own personalities? Are we the best person to ask this question? How supervisors, coworkers, and customers see our personality may matter more than how we see ourselves. Therefore, using self-report measures of performance may not be the best way of measuring someone s personality.[50] We have our blind areas. We may also give aspirational answers. If you are asked whether you are honest, you may think yes, I always have the intention to be honest. This actually says nothing about your actual level of honesty. Another problem with using these tests is the uncertain relationship between performance and personality. On the basis of research, personality is not a particularly strong indicator of how a person will perform. According to one estimate, personality only explains about 10% 15% of variation in job performance. Our performance at work depends on many factors, and personality does not seem to be the key factor for performance. In fact, cognitive ability (your overall mental intelligence) is a more powerful predictor of job performance. Instead of personality tests, cognitive ability tests may do a better job of predicting who will be good performers. Personality is a better predictor of job satisfaction and other attitudes, but screening people out on the assumption that they may be unhappy at work is a challenging argument to make in an employee selection context. In any case, if an organization decides to use these tests for selection, it is important to be aware of their limitations. If they are used together with other tests, such as tests of cognitive abilities, they may contribute to making better decisions. The company should ensure that the test fits the job and actually predicts performance. This is called validating the test. Before giving the test to applicants, the company could give it to existing employees to find out the traits that are most important for success in this particular company and job. Then, in the selection context, the company can pay particular attention to those traits. Finally, the company also needs to make sure that the test does not discriminate against people on the basis of sex, race, age, disabilities, and other legally protected characteristics. Rent-a-Center experienced legal difficulties when the test they used was found to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The company used the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory for selection purposes, but this test was developed to diagnose severe mental illnesses; it included items such as I see things or people around me others do not see. In effect, the test served the purpose of a clinical evaluation and was discriminating against people with mental illnesses, which is a protected category under ADA.[51]

9 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS Values FIGURE 2.7 Values Included in Schwartz s (1992) Value Inventory Values refer to people s stable life goals, reflecting what is most important to them. Values are established throughout one s life as a result of accumulating life experiences, and values tend to be relatively stable.[52] The values that are important to a person tend to affect the types of decisions they make, how they perceive their environment, and their actual behaviors. Moreover, a person is more likely to accept a job offer when the company possesses the values he or she cares about.[53] Value attainment is one reason people stay in a company. When a job does not help them attain their values, they are likely to decide to leave if they are dissatisfied with the job.[54] What are the values people care about? As with personality dimensions, researchers have developed several frameworks, or typologies, of values. One of the particularly useful frameworks includes 10 values.[55] values Stable life goals people have, reflecting what is most important to them.

10 42 THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT FIGURE 2.8 A person who has a strong stimulation orientation may pursue extreme sports. Values a person holds will affect their employment. For example, someone who values stimulation highly may seek jobs that involve fast action and high risk, such as firefighter, police officer, or emergency medicine. Someone who values achievement highly may be likely to become an entrepreneur or intrapreneur. And an individual who values benevolence and universalism may seek work in the nonprofit sector with a charitable organization or in a helping profession, such as nursing or social work. Like personality, values have implications for Organizing activities, such as assigning duties to specific jobs or developing the chain of command; employee values are likely to affect how employees respond to changes in the characteristics of their jobs. In terms of work behaviors, a person is more likely to accept a job offer when the company possesses the values he or she cares about. A firm s values are often described in the company s mission and vision statements, an element of the Planning function.[56] Value attainment is one reason people stay in a company. When a job does not help them attain their values, they are likely to decide to leave if they are also dissatisfied with the job.[57] 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation K E Y T A K E A W A Y Personality traits and values are two dimensions on which people differ. Personality is the unique, relatively stable pattern of feelings, thoughts, and behavior that each individual displays. Big Five personality dimensions (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and Neuroticism) are important traits; others that are particularly relevant for work behavior include self-efficacy, self-esteem, social monitoring, and proactive personality. While personality is a stronger influence over job attitudes, its relation to job performance is weaker. Some companies use personality testing to screen out candidates. Companies using personality tests are advised to validate their tests and use them to supplement other techniques with greater validity, such as tests of cognitive ability. Companies must also ensure that a test does not discriminate against any protected group. Values express a person s life goals; they are similar to personality traits in that they are relatively stable over time. In the workplace, a person is more likely to accept a job that provides opportunities for value attainment. People are also more likely to remain in a job and career that satisfy their values. E X E R C I S E S 1. Think about the personality traits covered in this section. Can you think of jobs or occupations that seem particularly suited to each trait? Which traits would be universally desirable across all jobs? 2. What are the unique challenges of managing employees who have low self-efficacy and self-esteem? How would you deal with this situation? 3. What are some methods that companies can use to assess employee personality? 4. Have you ever held a job where your personality did not match the demands of the job? How did you react to this situation? How were your attitudes and behaviors affected? 5. Identify ways in which the Big Five (of the manager and/or the employees) may affect how you as a manager would carry out the Leadership function.

11 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS PERCEPTION L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S Understand the influence of biases in the process of perception. Describe how we perceive visual objects and how these tendencies may affect our behavior. Describe the biases of self-perception. Describe the biases inherent in our perceptions of other people. Our behavior is not only a function of our personality and values but also of the situation. We interpret our environment, formulate responses, and act accordingly. Perception may be defined as the process by which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli. What makes human perception so interesting is that we do not solely respond to the stimuli in our environment. We go beyond the information that is present in our environment, pay selective attention to some aspects of the environment, and ignore other elements that may be immediately apparent to other people. Our perception of the environment is not entirely rational. For example, have you ever noticed that while glancing at a newspaper or a news Web site, information that is especially interesting or important to you jumps out of the page and catches your eye? If you are a sports fan, while scrolling down the pages, you may immediately see a news item describing the latest success of your team. If you are the mother of a picky eater, an advice column on toddler feeding may be the first thing you see when looking at the page. If you were recently turned down for a loan, an item of financial news may jump out at you. Therefore, what we see in the environment is a function of what we value, our needs, our fears, and our emotions.[58] In fact, what we see in the environment may be objectively flat out wrong because of such mental tendencies. For example, one experiment showed that when people who were afraid of spiders were shown spiders, they inaccurately thought that the spider was moving toward them.[59] In this section, we will describe some common perceptual tendencies we engage in when perceiving objects or other people and the consequences of such perceptions. Our coverage of these perceptual biases is not exhaustive there are many other biases and tendencies that can be found in the way people perceive stimuli. 2.1 Visual Perception Our visual perception definitely goes beyond the physical information available to us; this phenomenon is commonly referred to as optical illusions. Artists and designers of everything from apparel to cars to home interiors make use of optical illusions to enhance the look of the product. Managers rely on their visual perception to form their opinions about people and objects around them and to make sense of data presented in graphical form. Therefore, understanding how our visual perception may be biased is important. First, we extrapolate from the information available to us. Take a look at the first figure. The white triangle you see in the middle is not really there, but we extrapolate from the information available to us and see it there. Similarly, when we look at objects that are partially blocked, we see the whole.[60] FIGURE 2.9 What do you see? perception The process by which individuals detect and interpret environmental stimuli.

12 44 FIGURE 2.10 What do you see? Source: Image:Cup_or_faces_paradox.svg THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT Now, look at the next figure. What do you see? Most people look at this figure and see two faces or a goblet, depending on which color black or white they focus upon. Our visual perception is often biased because we do not perceive objects in isolation. The contrast between our focus of attention and the remainder of the environment may make an object appear bigger or smaller. This principle is shown here in the third figure. At first glance, the circle on the left may appear bigger, but they are the same size. This is due to the visual comparison of the middle circle on the left with its surrounding circles, whereas the middle circle on the right is compared with the bigger circles surrounding it. How do these tendencies influence behavior in organizations? The fact that our visual perception is faulty means that managers should not always take what they see at face value. Let s say that you do not like one of your peers and you think that you saw this person surfing the Web during work hours. Are you absolutely sure, or are you simply filling the gaps? Have you really seen this person surf unrelated Web sites, or is it possible that the person was searching for work-related purposes? The tendency to fill in the gaps also causes our memory to be faulty. Imagine that you have been at a meeting where several people made comments that you did not agree with. After the meeting, you may attribute most of these comments to people you did not like. In other words, you may twist the reality to make your memories more consistent with your opinions of people. The tendency to compare and contrast objects and people to each other also causes problems. For example, if you are a manager who has been given an office much smaller than the other offices on the floor, you may feel that your workspace is crowded and uncomfortable. If the same office is surrounded by smaller offices, you may actually feel that your office is comfortable and roomy. In short, our biased visual perception may lead to the wrong inferences about the people and objects around us. FIGURE 2.11 Which of the circles in the middle is bigger?

13 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS Self-Perception Human beings are prone to errors and biases when perceiving themselves. Moreover, the type of bias people have depends on their personality. Many people suffer from self-enhancement bias. This is the tendency to overestimate our performance and capabilities and see ourselves in a more positive light than others see us. People who have a narcissistic personality are particularly subject to this bias, but many others also have this bias to varying degrees.[61] At the same time, other people have the opposing extreme, which may be labeled as self-effacement bias (or modesty bias). This is the tendency to underestimate our performance and capabilities and to see events in a way that puts ourselves in a more negative light. We may expect that people with low self-esteem may be particularly prone to making this error. These tendencies have real consequences for behavior in organizations. For example, people who suffer from extreme levels of self-enhancement tendencies may not understand why they are not getting promoted or rewarded, while those who have a tendency to self-efface may project low confidence and take more blame for their failures than necessary. When human beings perceive themselves, they are also subject to the false consensus error. Simply put, we overestimate how similar we are to other people.[62] We assume that whatever quirks we have are shared by a larger number of people than in reality. People who take office supplies home, tell white lies to their boss or colleagues, or take credit for other people s work to get ahead may genuinely feel that these behaviors are more common than they really are. The problem for behavior in organizations is that, when people believe that a behavior is common and normal, they may repeat the behavior more freely. Under some circumstances, this may lead to a high level of unethical or even illegal behaviors. self-enhancement bias The tendency to overestimate our performance and capabilities and to see ourselves in a more positive light than others see us. self-effacement bias The tendency to underestimate our performance, capabilities, and see events in a way that puts ourselves in a more negative light. false consensus error How we as human beings overestimate how similar we are to other people. 2.3 Social Perception How we perceive other people in our environment is also shaped by our biases. Moreover, how we perceive others will shape our behavior, which in turn will shape the behavior of the person we are interacting with. One of the factors biasing our perception is stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations based on a group characteristic. For example, believing that women are more cooperative than men or that men are more assertive than women are stereotypes. Stereotypes may be positive, negative, or neutral. In the abstract, stereotyping is an adaptive function we have a natural tendency to categorize the information around us to make sense of our environment. Just imagine how complicated life would be if we continually had to start from scratch to understand each new situation and each new person we encountered! What makes stereotypes potentially discriminatory and a perceptual bias is the tendency to generalize from a group to a particular individual. If the belief that men are more assertive than women leads to choosing a man over an equally qualified female candidate for a position, the decision will be biased, unfair, and potentially illegal. Stereotypes often create a situation called self-fulfilling prophecy. This happens when an established stereotype causes one to behave in a certain way, which leads the other party to behave in a way that confirms the stereotype.[63] If you have a stereotype such as Asians are friendly, you are more likely to be friendly toward an Asian person. Because you are treating the other person more nicely, the response you get may also be nicer, which confirms your original belief that Asians are friendly. Of course, just the opposite is also true. Suppose you believe that young employees are slackers. You are less likely to give a young employee high levels of responsibility or interesting and challenging assignments. The result may be that the young employee reporting to you may become increasingly bored at work and start goofing off, confirming your suspicions that young people are slackers! Stereotypes persist because of a process called selective perception. Selective perception simply means that we pay selective attention to parts of the environment while ignoring other parts, which is particularly important during the Planning process. Our background, expectations, and beliefs will shape which events we notice and which events we ignore. For example, an executive s functional background will affect the changes he or she perceives in the environment.[64] Executives with a background in sales and marketing see the changes in the demand for their product, while executives with a background in information technology may more readily perceive the changes in the technology the company is using. Selective perception may also perpetuate stereotypes because we are less likely to notice events that go against our beliefs. A person who believes that men drive better than women may be more likely to notice women driving poorly than men driving poorly. As a result, a stereotype is maintained because information to the contrary may not even reach our brain! Let s say we noticed information that goes against our beliefs. What then? Unfortunately, this is no guarantee that we will modify our beliefs and prejudices. First, when we see examples that go against our stereotypes, we tend to come up with subcategories. For example, people who believe that women stereotypes Generalizations based on a group characteristic. self-fulfilling prophecy When an established stereotype causes one to behave in a certain way, which leads the other party to behave in a way that makes the stereotype come true. selective perception When we pay selective attention to parts of the environment while ignoring other parts.

14 46 THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT are more cooperative when they see a female who is assertive may classify her as a career woman. Therefore, the example to the contrary does not violate the stereotype and is explained as an exception to the rule.[65] Or, we may simply discount the information. In one study, people in favor of and against the death penalty were shown two studies, one showing benefits for the death penalty while the other disconfirming any benefits. People rejected the study that went against their belief as methodologically inferior and ended up believing in their original position even more![66] In other words, using data to debunk people s beliefs or previously established opinions may not necessarily work, a tendency to guard against when conducting Planning and Controlling activities. One other perceptual tendency that may affect work behavior is first impresfigure 2.12 sions. The first impressions we form about people tend to have a lasting effect. In fact, first impressions, once formed, are surprisingly resilient to contrary information. Even First impressions are lasting. A job interview is if people are told that the first impressions were caused by inaccurate information, one situation where first impressions formed people hold on to them to a certain degree because once we form first impressions, they during the first few minutes may have become independent from the evidence that created them.[67] Therefore, any informaconsequences for your relationship with your tion we receive to the contrary does not serve the purpose of altering them. Imagine the future boss or colleagues. first day that you met your colleague Anne. She treated you in a rude manner, and when you asked for her help, she brushed you off. You may form the belief that Anne is a rude and unhelpful person. Later on, you may hear that Anne s mother is seriously ill, making Anne very stressed. In reality, she may have been unusually stressed on the day you first met her. If you had met her at a time when her stress level was lower, you could have thought that she is a really nice person. But chances are, your impression that she is rude and unhelpful will not change even when you hear about her mother. Instead, this new piece of information will be added to the first one: She is rude, unhelpful, and her mother is sick. As a manager, you can protect yourself against this tendency by being aware of it and making a conscious effort to open your mind to new information. It would also be to your advantage to pay careful attention to the first impressions you create, particularly during job interviews Jupiterimages Corporation first impressions Initial thoughts and perceptions we form about people that tend to be stable and resilient to contrary information. K E Y T A K E A W A Y Perception is how we make sense of our environment in response to environmental stimuli. While perceiving our surroundings, we go beyond the objective information available to us and our perception is affected by our values, needs, and emotions. There are many biases that affect human perception of objects, self, and others. When perceiving the physical environment, we fill in the gaps and extrapolate from the available information. When perceiving others, stereotypes influence our behavior. Stereotypes may lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. Stereotypes are perpetuated because of our tendency to pay selective attention to aspects of the environment and ignore information inconsistent with our beliefs. Understanding the perception process gives us clues to understanding human behavior.

15 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS 47 E X E R C I S E S 1. What are some of the typical errors, or optical illusions, that we experience when we observe physical objects? 2. What are the problems of false consensus error? How can managers deal with this tendency? 3. Describe a situation where perception biases have or could affect any of the P-O-L-C facets. Use an example you have experienced or observed, or, if you do not have such an example, create a hypothetical situation. How do we manage the fact that human beings develop stereotypes? Is there such as thing as a good stereotype? How would you prevent stereotypes from creating unfairness in management decisions? 4. Describe a self-fulfilling prophecy you have experienced or observed in action. Was the prophecy favorable or unfavorable? If unfavorable, how could the parties have chosen different behavior to produce a more positive outcome? 3. WORK ATTITUDES L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S Define what work attitudes are. Define and differentiate between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. List several important factors influencing job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Identify two ways companies can track attitudes in the workplace. How we behave at work often depends on how we feel about being there. Therefore, making sense of how people behave depends on understanding their work attitudes. An attitude refers to our opinions, beliefs, and feelings about aspects of our environment. We have attitudes toward the food we eat, people we meet, courses we take, and things we do. At work, two job attitudes have the greatest potential to influence how we behave. These are job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Job satisfaction refers to the feelings people have toward their job. If the number of studies conducted on job satisfaction is an indicator, job satisfaction is probably the most important job attitude. Institutions such as Gallup or the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) periodically conduct studies of job satisfaction to track how satisfied employees are at work. According to a recent Gallup survey, 90% of the employees surveyed said that they were at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs. A recent SHRM study revealed 40% who were very satisfied.[68] Organizational commitment is the emotional attachment people have toward the company they work for. A highly committed employee is one who accepts and believes in the company s values, is willing to put out effort to meet the company s goals, and has a strong desire to remain with the company. People who are committed to their company often refer to their company as we as opposed to they as in in this company, we have great benefits. The way we refer to the company indicates the type of attachment and identification we have with the company. There is a high degree of overlap between job satisfaction and organizational commitment because things that make us happy with our job often make us more committed to the company as well. Companies believe that these attitudes are worth tracking because they often are associated with outcomes that are important to the Controlling role, such as performance, helping others, absenteeism, and turnover. 3.1 What Causes Positive Work Attitudes? What makes you satisfied with your job and develop commitment to your company? Research shows that people pay attention to several factors of their work environment, including characteristics of the job (a function of Organizing activities), how they are treated (related to Leadership actions), the relationships they form with colleagues and managers (also Leadership related), and the level of stress the job entails. As we have seen earlier in this chapter, personality and values play important roles in how employees feel about their jobs. attitude Our opinions, beliefs, and feelings about aspects of our environment. job satisfaction The feelings people have toward their job. organizational commitment The emotional attachment people have toward the company they work for.

16 48 THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT FIGURE 2.13 Factors Contributing to Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Job Characteristics Employees tend to be more satisfied and committed in jobs that involve certain characteristics. The ability to use a variety of skills, having autonomy at work, receiving feedback on the job, and performing a significant task are some job characteristics that are related to satisfaction and commitment. However, the presence of these factors is not important for everyone. Some people have a high need for growth. These employees tend to be more satisfied when their jobs help them build new skills and improve.[69] Organizational Justice and the Psychological Contract psychological contract The unspoken, informal understanding that an employee will contribute certain things to the organization and will receive certain things in return. A strong influence over our satisfaction level is how fairly we are treated. People pay attention to the fairness of company policies and procedures, fair and kind treatment from supervisors, and fairness of their pay and other rewards they receive from the company.[70] Organizational justice can be classified into three categories: (1) procedural (fairness in the way policies and processes are carried out), (2) distributive (the allocation of resources or compensation and benefits), and (3) interactional (the degree to which people are treated with dignity and respect). At the root of organizational justice is trust, something that is easier to break than to repair if broken. The psychological contract is the unspoken, informal understanding that an employee will contribute certain things to the organization (e.g., work ability and a willing attitude) and will receive certain things in return (e.g., reasonable pay and benefits). Under the psychological contract, an employee may believe that if he or she works hard and receives favorable performance evaluations, he or she will receive an annual bonus, periodic raises and promotions, and will not be laid off. Since the downsizing trend of the past 20 years, many commentators have declared that the psychological contract is violated more often than not. Relationships at Work Two strong predictors of our happiness at work and commitment to the company are our relationships with coworkers and managers. The people we interact with, how friendly they are, whether we are socially accepted in our work group, whether we are treated with respect by them are important to our happiness at work. Research also shows that our relationship with our manager, how considerate the manager is, and whether we build a trust-based relationship with our manager are critically important to our job satisfaction and organizational commitment.[71] When our manager and overall management listen to us, care about us, and value our opinions, we tend to feel good at work. When establishing effective relations with employees, little signals that you care about your employees go a long way. For example, in 2004 San Francisco s Hotel Carlton was taken over and renovated by a new management group, Joie de Vivre Hospitality. One of the small things the new management did that created dramatic results was that, in response to an employee attitude survey, they replaced the old vacuum cleaners housekeepers were using and started replacing them every year. It did not cost the company much to replace old machinery, but this simple act of listening to employee problems and taking action went a long way to make employees feel better.[72] Stress Not surprisingly, the amount of stress present in a job is related to employee satisfaction and commitment. Stressors range from environmental ones (noise, heat, inadequate ventilation) to interpersonal ones (organizational politics, conflicts with coworkers) to organizational ones (pressure to avoid

17 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS 49 making mistakes, worrying about the security of the job). Some jobs, such as intensive care unit nurse and military fighter pilot, are inherently very stressful. Another source of stress has to do with the roles people are expected to fulfill on and off the job. Role ambiguity is uncertainty about what our responsibilities are in the job. Role conflict involves contradictory demands at work; it can also involve conflict between fulfilling one s role as an employee and other roles in life, such as the role of parent, friend, or community volunteer. Generally speaking, the higher the stress level, the lower job satisfaction tends to be. But not all stress is bad, and some stressors actually make us happier! For example, working under time pressure and having a high degree of responsibility are stressful, but they are also perceived as challenges and tend to be related to high levels of satisfaction.[73] 3.2 Assessing Work Attitudes in the Workplace Given that work attitudes may give us clues about who will leave or stay, who will perform better, and who will be more engaged, tracking satisfaction and commitment levels is a helpful step for companies. If there are companywide issues that make employees unhappy and disengaged, these need to be resolved. There are at least two systematic ways in which companies can track work attitudes: through attitude surveys and exit interviews. Companies such as KFC and Long John Silver restaurants, the SAS Institute, Google, and others give periodic attitude surveys, which are used to track employee work attitudes. Companies can get more out of these surveys if responses are held confidential. If employees become concerned that their individual responses will be shared with their immediate manager, they are less likely to respond honestly. Moreover, success of these surveys depends on the credibility of management in the eye of employees. If management periodically collects these surveys but no action comes out of them, employees may adopt a more cynical attitude and start ignoring these surveys, hampering the success of future efforts. Exit interviews involve a meeting with the departing employee. This meeting is often conducted by a member of the human resource management department. If conducted well, this meeting may reveal what makes employees dissatisfied at work and give management clues about areas for improvement. How strong is the attitude-behavior link? First of all, it depends on the attitude in question. Your attitudes toward your colleagues may influence whether you actually help them on a project, but they may not be a good predictor of whether you quit your job. Second, it is worth noting that attitudes are more strongly related to intentions to behave in a certain way, rather than actual behaviors. When you are dissatisfied with your job, you will have the intention to leave. Whether you actually leave will be a different story! Your leaving will depend on many factors, such as availability of alternative jobs in the market, your employability in a different company, and sacrifices you have to make while changing jobs. Thus, while the attitudes assessed through employee satisfaction surveys and exit interviews can provide some basis for predicting how a person might behave in a job, remember that behavior is also strongly influenced by situational constraints. K E Y T A K E A W A Y Work attitudes are the feelings we have toward different aspects of the work environment. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are two key attitudes that are the most relevant to important outcomes. In addition to personality and fit with the organization, work attitudes are influenced by the characteristics of the job, perceptions of organizational justice and the psychological contract, relationships with coworkers and managers, and the stress levels experienced on the job. Many companies assess employee attitudes through surveys of worker satisfaction and through exit interviews. The usefulness of such information is limited, however, because attitudes create an intention to behave in a certain way, but they do not always predict actual behaviors. attitude surveys Surveys that are given to employees tracking their work attitudes. exit interview A meeting with the departing employee.

18 50 THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT E X E R C I S E S 1. What is the difference between job satisfaction and organizational commitment? How do the two concepts relate to one another? 2. In your opinion, of the factors that influence work attitudes, which three are the most important in making people dissatisfied with their jobs? Which three are the most important relating to organizational commitment? 3. Do you think making employees happier at work is a good way of motivating people? When would high satisfaction not be related to high performance? 4. How important is pay in making people attached to a company and making employees satisfied? 5. Do you think younger and older people are similar in what makes them happier at work and makes them committed to their companies? Do you think there are male-female differences? Explain your answers. 4. THE INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE: THE ROLE OF FIT L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S 1. Differentiate between person-organization and person-job fit. 2. Understand the relationship between person-job fit and work behaviors. 3. Understand the relationship between person-organization fit and work behaviors. person-organization fit The degree to which a person s values, personality, goals, and other characteristics match those of the organization. person-job fit The degree to which a person s skill, knowledge, abilities, and other characteristics match the job demands. As we have seen in the earlier sections of this chapter, human beings bring in their personality, values, attitudes, perceptions, and other stable traits to work. Imagine that you are interviewing an employee who is proactive, creative, and willing to take risks. Would this person be a good job candidate? What behaviors would you expect this person to demonstrate? The questions we pose here are misleading. While human beings bring their traits to work, every organization is also different, and every job is different. According to the interactionist perspective, behavior is a function of the person and the situation interacting with each other. Think about it. Would a shy person speak up in class? While a shy person may not feel like speaking if he or she is very interested in the subject, knows the answers to the questions, feels comfortable within the classroom environment, and knows that class participation is 30% of the course grade, this person may speak up in class regardless of his or her shyness. Similarly, the behavior you may expect from someone who is proactive, creative, and willing to take risks will depend on the situation. The fit between what we bring to our work environment and the environmental demands influences not only our behavior but also our work attitudes. Therefore, person-job fit and person-organization fit are positively related to job satisfaction and commitment. When our abilities match job demands, and when our values match company values, we tend to be more satisfied with our job and more committed to the company we work for.[74] When companies hire employees, they are interested in assessing at least two types of fit. Personorganization fit refers to the degree to which a person s personality, values, goals, and other characteristics match those of the organization. Person-job fit is the degree to which a person s knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics match the job demands. (Human resources professionals often use the abbreviation KSAO to refer to these four categories of attributes.) Thus, someone who is proactive and creative may be a great fit for a company in the high-tech sector that would benefit from risk-taking individuals but may be a poor fit for a company that puts a high priority on routine and predictable behavior, such as a nuclear power plant. Similarly, this proactive and creative person may be a great fit for a field-based job such as marketing manager but a poor fit for an office job highly dependent on rules such as accountant. When people fit into their organization, they tend to be more satisfied with their jobs, more committed to their companies, are more influential in their company, and remain longer in their company.[75] One area of controversy is whether these people perform better. Some studies found a positive relationship between person-organization fit and job performance, but this finding was not present in all studies, so it seems that only sometimes fitting with a company s culture predicts job performance.[76] It also seems that fitting in with the company values is important to some people more than to others. For example, people who have worked in multiple companies tend to understand the effect of a company s culture better and therefore pay closer attention to whether they will fit in with the

19 CHAPTER 2 PERSONALITY, ATTITUDES, AND WORK BEHAVIORS company when making their decisions.[77] Also, when they build good relationships with their supervisors and the company, being a misfit does not seem to matter as much.[78] K E Y T A K E A W A Y While personality, values, attitudes, perceptions, and KSAOs are important, we need to keep in mind that behavior is jointly determined by the person and the situation. Certain situations bring out the best in people, and someone who is a poor performer in one job may turn into a star employee in a different job. Therefore, managers need to consider the individual and the situation when making Organizing decisions about the job or when engaging in Leadership activities like building teams or motivating employees. E X E R C I S E S 1. How can a company assess person-job fit before hiring employees? What are the methods you think would be helpful? 2. How can a company determine person-organization fit before hiring employees? Which methods do you think would be helpful? 3. What can organizations do to increase person-job and person-organization fit after they hire employees? 5. WORK BEHAVIORS L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S 1. Define job performance, organizational citizenship, absenteeism, and turnover. 2. Explain factors associated with each type of work behavior. One of the important objectives of the field of organizational behavior is to understand why people behave the way they do. Which behaviors are we referring to here? We will focus on four key work behaviors: job performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, absenteeism, and turnover. Note that the first two behaviors are desirable ones, whereas the other two are often regarded as undesirable. While these four are not the only behaviors organizational behavior is concerned about, if you understand what we mean by these behaviors and the major influences over each type of behavior, you will gain more clarity about analyzing the behaviors of others in the workplace. FIGURE 2.14 Factors That Have the Strongest Influence over Work Behaviors 51

20 52 THE PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT 5.1 Job Performance job performance The performance level on factors included in the job description. Job performance refers to the level to which an employee successfully fulfills the factors included in the job description. For each job, the content of job performance may differ. Measures of job performance include quality and quantity of work performed by the employee, the accuracy and speed with which the job is performed, and the overall effectiveness of the person on the job. In many companies, job performance determines whether a person is promoted, rewarded with pay raises, given additional responsibilities, or fired from the job. Therefore, most employers observe and track job performance. This is done by keeping track of data on topics such as the number of sales the employee closes, the number of clients the employee visits, the number of defects found in the employee s output, or the number of customer complaints or compliments received about the person s work. In some jobs, objective performance data may not be available, and instead supervisor, coworker, customer, and subordinate assessments of the quality and quantity of work performed by the person become the indicators of job performance. Job performance is one of the main outcomes studied in organizational behavior and is an important variable managers must assess when they are engaged in the Controlling role. What Are the Major Predictors of Job Performance? general mental ability Our reasoning abilities, verbal and numerical skills, analytical skills, or overall intelligence level. Under which conditions do people perform well, and what are the characteristics of high performers? These questions receive a lot of research attention. It seems that the most powerful influence over our job performance is our general mental ability also known as cognitive ability or intelligence, and often abbreviated as g. General mental ability can be divided into several components reasoning abilities, verbal and numerical skills, and analytical skills and it seems to be important across different situations. It seems that g starts influencing us early in our school days because it is strongly correlated with measures of academic success even in childhood.[79] In adult life, g is also correlated with different measures of job performance.[80] It seems that the influence of g on performance is important across different settings, but there is also variation. In jobs with high complexity, it is much more critical to have high general mental abilities. Examples of such jobs are manager, sales representative, engineer, and professions such as law and medicine. In jobs such as police officer and clerical worker, the importance of g for high performance is still important but weaker. Perceptions of organizational justice and interpersonal relationships are factors determining our performance level. When we feel that we are being fairly treated by the company, that our manager is supportive and rewards high performance, and when we trust the people we work with, we tend to perform better. Why? It seems that when we believe we are treated well, we want to reciprocate. Therefore, we treat the company well by performing our job more effectively. The stress we experience on the job also determines our performance level. When we are stressed, our mental energies are drained. Instead of focusing on the task at hand, we start concentrating on the stressor trying to cope with it. Because our attention and energies are diverted to dealing with stress, our performance suffers. Having role ambiguity and experiencing conflicting role demands are related to lower performance.[81] Stress that prevents us from doing our jobs does not have to be related to our experiences at work. For example, according to a survey conducted by Workplace Options, 45% of the respondents said that financial stress affects work performance. When people are in debt, worrying about their mortgage payments or college payments of their kids, their performance will suffer.[82] Our work attitudes, particularly job satisfaction, are also correlates of job performance but not to as great a degree as you might expect. Many studies have been devoted to understanding whether happy employees are more productive. Some studies show weak correlations between satisfaction and performance while others show higher correlations (what researchers would call medium sized correlations of.30).[83] The correlation between commitment and performance tends to be even weaker.[84] Even with a correlation of.30, though, the relationship may be lower than you may have expected. Why is this the case? It seems that happy workers have an inclination to be more engaged at work. They may want to perform better. They may be more motivated. But there are also exceptions. Think about this: Because you want to perform, does this mean that you will actually perform better? Chances are your skill level in performing the job will matter. There are also some jobs where performance depends on factors beyond an employee s control, such as the pace of the machine they are working on. Because of this reason, in professional jobs such as with engineers and researchers, we see a stronger link between work attitudes and performance, as opposed to manual jobs such as assembly-line workers.[85] Also, think about the alternative possibility: If you don t like your job, does this mean that you will reduce your performance? Maybe up to a certain point, but there will be factors that prevent you from reducing your performance: such as the fear of getting fired, the desire to get a promotion so that you can get out of the job that you dislike so much, or your professional work ethic. As another example, among nurses, there seems to be a weak correlation between satisfaction and performance. Even when they are